Sunday, May 19, 2013

The city has hired Breeze National to demolish a NYCHA's Prospect Plaza Houses, which were vacated starting 12 years ago.

The city has hired a demolition firm with mob ties and a deadly safety
record to finally tear down an abandoned public housing development
that's remained vacant for more than a decade, the Daily News has
learned.
Some 1,500 tenants of the Prospect Plaza Houses in Crown Heights were
relocated starting in 2001 with the promise that they'd be back in by
2005 once everything was renovated.
A decade later, the renovation plans have been abandoned and the city
has decided on demolition instead, hiring a company called Breeze
National to tear down the four boarded-up, rotting buildings that
remain.
The hiring of Breeze, however, has its own set of issues.
Until recently, the company was owned by Toby Romano Sr., an alleged
organized crime associate who was convicted 1988 of bribing a health
inspector during an asbestos removal job.
In 2006 the city's Business Integrity Commission denied a Breeze
affiliate, Breeze Carting, a license to haul trash in the city, citing
Romano's record and charging that the company made what it termed
"material misrepresentations" — aka "lies" — in its application. By 2009 the city began requiring that Breeze hire a special anti-corruption monitor to oversee its work — but even that didn't necessarily fix the problem.
That year while Breeze was tearing down the old Shea Stadium, the
monitor in place discovered that one of Breeze's employees was Herb Pate,
a "known associate of the Lucchese crime family." Breeze got rid of Pate
and insisted that since then, Romano Sr., the company president, "no
longer has an ownership interest.” That's not true of Romano Sr.'s wife,
Mary. Breeze says Mary is no longer on the payroll but bid documents
obtained by the News show she's still listed as VP/Treasurer and is
co-owner with Romano's son, Toby Jr. Breeze officials did not return
calls Saturday.
On April 2, 2012, Breeze and four other demolition firms submitted bids
to the city Housing Preservation & Development, which has partnered
with NYCHA to rip down the high-rise towers and replace them with
low-rise townhouses and apartments. Breeze's bids were dramatically
different than every other bidders, documents show, totaling just $5.8
million. The next lowest bidder, NASDI LLC, bid $10.5 million for the
same work.
Twenty days after the bids were submitted on April 22, 2012, an old
garage Breeze was demolishing for Columbia University uptown collapsed,
trapping three men. One man died, and federal regulators later alleged
Breeze was told of a crack in the structural steel before the accident,
but did nothing about it.The U.S. Occupational Safety & Health
Administration (OSHA) slapped Breeze with two safety violations and
fined the firm $9,800, which Breeze is now fighting.

Breeze is a mobbed-up firm
cited in the death of a worker at Columbia University and another during
a previous project. The Prospect Plaza Houses were vacated in 2001 and
residents were promised that the apartments would be renovated and they
could move back in in 2005.

As it happened, another Breeze worker had died at another Columbia U.
job the prior year by falling down an empty elevator shaft. OSHA hit
Breeze with $2,250 in fines, which the company settled for $1,688.
Despite the mob ties and safety violations, HPD in December chose
Breeze over four other bidders. The city is obligated choose the "lowest
responsible bidder," and HPD spokesman Eric Bederman noted that — as with the Shea Stadium job —
Breeze must hire an anti-corruption monitor who will report directly to
the city Department of Investigation, and retain an on-site safety
inspector.
"By its nature a demolition project of this size and complexity
requires the approval of numerous city agencies as part of a
comprehensive monitoring effort. Given the demands of the job and City's
concerns, we are requiring the contractor to submit to multiple layers
of oversight to ensure compliance with all City, State and Federal labor
practices, the safety of the workers and public, and the integrity of
its business operations."
Bederman noted Breeze's bids "were substantially lower than the next
lowest bidder, offering the City the opportunity to save millions of
taxpayer dollars that can now be budgeted by NYCHA to aid in other
priorities."
Already the job has fallen behind schedule. It was supposed to start
April 15, but as of Friday the deteriorating towers remained unscathed,
grass growing up through the pavement of a basketball court, a park
bench outside one building scrawled with the disturbing street message,
"INFESTED WITH BEDBUGS."
Meanwhile, some of the hundreds of tenants who lost their homes so many
years ago wonder if they'll be allowed back in. Only 80 of the 365
units will be set aside for NYCHA residents, with the rest going to any
family making $55,000 a year or less.
Last Friday, outside one of the buildings set to be demolished in the
coming months, one former Prospect Plaza tenant was shocked to hear
about the coming demolition crews.
"I can't believe they're tearing that down," said Shirley Ross, who was
with her daughter, Latefa Lee, 13, who happened to have been born just a
few weeks before the family was relocated from the towers.
"There's a lot of memories in those projects," she said. "People have been waiting a long time to come back."